Bench to bedside
Bench to bedside is a philosophy which underpins the partnership between The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research:
- Bench (basic research): our laboratories are internationally renowned for basic cancer research.
- Translational research and clinical trials: we have a multidisciplinary collaboration that enables scientific research to be efficiently translated into effective clinical practice.
- Bedside (patient care): by working together our leading-edge research and high-quality healthcare service demonstrably improves patient care.
The discovery of potential candidate genes for targeted therapy drives the development of new anti-cancer drugs in the Drug Development Unit, which can then be rapidly tested in phase I clinical trials.
Promising drugs are then taken into phase II/III trials in various clinical units within The Royal Marsden. If they are successful they may finally be implemented into routine clinical practice.
Personalised treatment
A fundamental part of the strategy of targeted therapy is the availability of specialised histopathology and molecular diagnostics that can profile a patient’s own cancer. This allows us to identify the correct targeted anti-cancer therapy for each individual.
There are several examples of this personalised treatment strategy in practice that illustrate our increasing ability to bring research findings from the laboratory bench rapidly to the clinical bedside.